Genetics and genomics of coronary artery disease

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is an important clinical problem because of its large contribution to mortality. Disease prevention is an important strategy for reducing the overall burden of CAD, with the identification of markers for disease risk being key both for risk prediction and for potential intervention to lower the chance of future cardiovascular events. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) demonstrated that single nucleotide polymorphisms at chromosome 9p21.3 or other loci were associated with CAD. In this review, we summarize genetics of CAD and susceptibility loci and genes for this condition identified by GWASs. We also review in more detail studies that have revealed the association with CAD of genetic variants at chromosome 9p21.3 identified by GWASs. Such studies may provide insight into the function of implicated genes as well as into the role of genetic factors in the development of CAD.